Aunt Molly’s ground cherries

(Physalis sp.)

Prolific and weird. This is a fruit, not a vegetable. Low, spreading plants produce loads of little fruits, each wrapped in its own husk. Do not pick them; simply harvest by collecting the ones which drop off the plant. Leave them in the husks until the fruit turns a golden yellow, indicating it is ripe; until then, it is poisonous (ah, the joys of high-stakes food…) Once they are ripe, peel the husks and eat fresh, or dry them to make a unique variation on raisins, or stew to make a conserve (no sugar needed). Flavour is a curious, sweet/sour tropical indescribable something which three members of our family love and one dislikes! Will self-seed, so if you grow it once you are likely to always have a few but, following the advice of a friend who has grown them for decades, “we have weeds which are a lot worse, so we don’t mind.”